Gameplay impressions
What do we like?Wii Sports Resort showcases the Wii Motion Plus accessory impressively and provides a more immersive experience than Wii Sports thanks to the improved accuracy of your movements and the way that they're matched on screen with such pin-point precision. In some of the new games, such as Swordplay, every swipe that you make of the Wii Remote translates perfectly onto the screen. Ultimately, this improved accuracy makes you feel in total control of the weapon and therefore entirely involved and engrossed in the gameplay. From the moment that you parachute onto Wuhu Island and twist and turn the Wii Remote in all directions to move your character on-screen you can see just how much Wii Motion Plus reflects your movements on-screen. The accuracy of the control scheme in Wii Sports Resorts bodes well for future games that plan to use this technology.
The best way to see the difference in accuracy between using Wii Motion Plus and not using it, is to try out two of the games that were present in Wii Sports. Bowling in Wii Sports was often interrupted by stuttering as you let go off your bowling ball, or would sometimes re-set so that you had to swing your arm again. This problem has been totally eliminated in Wii Sports Resort and it now really does feel like the speed and the tilt of your bowling swing is reflected accurately on-screen. The same also applies to Golf, where using your Wii Remote as a golf club and swinging it back and forward is captured on-screen with true 1:1 accuracy.
The Wii Remote and Nunchuck have also been used to great effect to create an authentic feel to the majority of the sports. In Archery, for example, you hold your controllers like a bow and arrow and need to line up the proper trajectory before you fire. Archery is one of the best games out of the 12 on offer, but there are plenty of other shining examples of excellent game design, with the likes of Table Tennis, Skydiving and Swordplay all providing plenty of entertainment. Similarly, Power Cruising (jet-ski-ing,) where you need to hold the controllers like they're the handlebars of a jet-ski while navigating through circular slaloms, makes you feel like you’re in total control off the vehicle, and that your success is totally down to your own skill and precise movements. Cycling and canoeing both provide alternatives to skill-based games by giving you a physical work-out that reflect, albeit in a small way, the physical exertions of the real sports.
Indeed, the 12 games on offer present a broad range of controller-waving actions to carry out and therefore everyone should find something they’ll enjoy playing. It also means that there's plenty of replay value to be had out of mixing up the sports, attempting to beat friends and family, or trying to beat some of the tricky objectives. There’s a new level of depth in Wii Sports Resort that we didn’t see in Wii Sports. While the variety of game modes adds replay value (typically two or three game modes per discipline,) it’s the introduction of stamps that adds true depth, requiring you to learn your discipline well and master the controls. Stamps have been introduced as a reward scheme, similar to PS3 trophies or achievements points on Xbox 360. You can unlock them by achieving set objectives, such as hitting several consecutive bulls-eyes in a row, or catching and linking up with 4 other Mii characters while sky diving. Ultimately, stamps give you something else to aim for and require skill to achieve, therefore increasing the challenge if you're looking for a deeper experience.
The beauty of any sports game is that no matter how many times you play it, no game is ever identical to the last. Wii Sports Resorts is the type of game that you can play over and over again. Providing that you have friends to play it with, there's enough entertainment among it's 12 disciplines to ensure that you shouldn't get bored any time soon.
What don’t we like?
Like its predecessor, the quality of games in Wii Sports Resort is inconsistent. Out of the 12 disciplines on offer, there are a few disappointing entries that we probably won' be play very often. Wakeboarding, for example, suffers from poor camera angles that increase its difficulty unnecessarily. Other disappointments are Frisbee, which is nothing more than a tech demo, albeit a good one; and cycling and canoeing, which both provide little stimulation and excitement.
Like Wii Sports, Wii Sports Resort doesn’t cater for the single player, but is designed specifically with group play in mind, yet online play is absent and there is only one game, canoeing, that you can play with four simultaneous players. There’s a missed opportunity to use Nintendo Wi-Fi for online competitive play. If this was included, there’s no doubt that it would increase the replay value of Wii Sports Resorts infinitely.
Final Thoughts
Largely, Wii Sports Resort offers a competent set of enjoyable mini-games that benefit greatly from the introduction of Wii Motion Plus. Though some games will be played more than others, and it's price tag is slightly too high for our liking, it’s another party game from Nintendo that is going to played to death, and deservedly so.
Final Score : 8.5/10
